Ken Levine: “No plans” to make Wii U games
Despite being featured in Nintendo’s developer reel for Wii U at E3, Ken Levine reiterated to IGN that he has no plans to make any Wii U games at the moment. Levine, however, does appreciate the idea of being able to play a full-blown console game on the controller and likes that the “pad” features two control sticks.
“Just to be clear, there are no plans. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but we have no plans to do any games for that platform. There are things about it that, as a core gamer, really appeal to me, that have nothing to do with Fruit Ninja. I have nothing against Fruit Ninja, I respect all kinds of games, I love all kinds of games, there are just certain kinds of things that are more suited to my taste. There are some things, as a core gamer, as a guy who likes lying in bed playing… I’ve always had to sacrifice that core gaming experience when I lie in bed playing games. We’re now getting to a place with Vita and what Nintendo’s doing where that’s not necessarily going to be the case, where you can play full-on hardcore games in bed with the lights out while your wife’s asleep. I like that a lot. That means a lot to me. On the airplane? That means a lot to me as a core gamer, that you’ve got two sticks. That’s so important to me. The fact that the Wii U has got two sticks… I feel it’s like… It’s a great year for the core coming back and saying, okay, have your touch screens, have your motion control, we’ll try to make that work, and if you can pull that off it’ll be really good. But I want to have my cake and eat it too. I think these experiences are starting to allow that to happen. I love my iPad, but I mostly work on it, I don’t play a lot of games on it, because I’m not into that style or form factor, that three-minute experience.”
Levine has never been involved with the development of a Nintendo game before. Might he be more inclined to work on Wii U in the future? He did leave the door open by saying “I’m not saying it can’t happen”, so you never know what may happen.
The Irrational Games co-founder has also expressed some interest in 3DS, though hasn’t shared any plans to develop for the portable.
